Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Getting the Most Out of the San Diego Free Press

Our goal here at the San Diego Free Press is to keep you up to date on issues that affect San Diego and the surrounding areas of the county. There are a lot of features here at the San Diego Free Press to help you navigate the site and connect with the authors and other readers…

Navigation Bars

The upper navigation bar links to Pages

Pages

You are familiar with our masthead, but take a closer look at the navigation bar above it. Here you will find links to “Pages” on the SDFP. Pages hold information about the staff, how to contact us, our terms of use, how to subscribe (we’ll talk more about that) and other things about the site itself that remain pretty constant.

Hover your mouse over a topic and a dropdown list appears

Categories or Topics

The navigation bar below the masthead links to archives dealing with topics that are covered here at SDFP. Category or Topic archives contain listings of articles displayed with the newest items near the top. Some of those archives change every day, others less often.

Some topics have sub-categories. For example, if you hover your mouse over Culture a list of items will “dropdown” where you can select Music.

Called a “tag-cloud”, this list links to articles about neighborhoods.

If you hover over Columns, a list of the archives of our current columnists will drop down.

Around Town

Another type of topic listing is located in the right sidebar. When an article is posted that concerns a specific neighborhood or part of San Diego county we use “tags” to identify them.

The Around Town listing is called a “tag-cloud” and lists every tag associated with our articles. When a name appears in larger type that means there are more articles posted about that neighborhood, when the type size is smaller there are fewer articles. Is your neighborhood being neglected? Get involved and write about the issues your neighborhood is facing! We welcome new contributors.

These tags are also listed at the bottom of each article with links to the archives for that neighborhood.

The Byline links to archives of the author and topics and displays the number of comments

The Byline

Under the title of each article is the “Byline.” The byline includes lots of helpful links. Click on the name of the author and it sends you to the archive that includes all of the articles written by that author. The byline lists the current number of comments on that article and also links to the archive of the topics that it relates to.

Author Information

The author box contains information about the author, ways to contact or follow them and a list of their recent articles.

At the bottom of each article posted on the SDFP that has been written by one of our staff, or regular contributors, is the “Author Box”. It contains a snippet of information about the author (shown by default or by clicking on the Bio tab).

If the author has a Twitter feed or Facebook page you can click on those tabs to connect with them in Social Media.

The Latest Posts tab gives a brief list of the most recent articles and contains a link to their full archive.

Subscribe to the San Diego Free Press!

Add your email address and click Subscribe to get an email every day we publish

One of the easiest ways to keep informed is to subscribe to the SDFP by email, and there are several ways you can do that.

Subscribe to Articles

First, you can subscribe using the box in the sidebar. Simply type your email address into the box and click subscribe and follow the instructions. You will get an email every day that we publish.

We use the Feedburner RSS service, which sends out an email once a day with links to all the articles published in the last 24 hour period. You can opt out at any time simply by using the link at the bottom of the email.

Subscribe to Topics

There are other options for Subscribing. Maybe you just want to subscribe to certain topics. For instance, John P. Anderson’s SD for Free, which highlights free things to do in San Diego… Head on over to our Subscriptions Page for the details.

Subscribe to Comments opt in below every comment form.

Subscribe to Comments

Comments are an important part of the SDFP and we want to keep the dialog going. You can subscribe to comments on the SDFP so you are notified when new comments are posted. Below the comment form on every article is a check-box to opt in. Check the box before you submit your comment and you will receive an email each time a new comment is posted. Or click the subscribe link to get those emails without commenting yourself.

Share and Connect with others

Subscribe, Follows us, Contact us!

The San Diego Free Press has been established to bring news and commentary from a distinctively progressive and grassroots perspective to the greater San Diego and outlying areas. Our mission is to provide a forum for those views, and spread the word about issues facing our neighborhoods. You can help us accomplish that mission by sharing the SDFP with your family, friends and neighbors.

Find us on Facebook and like our page. Follow us on Twitter and retweet things of interest. In the sidebar of every page of the SDFP you can find links to our social media outlets.

At the bottom of every article you will find our “Share Bar” with sharing options for Google+, Facebook, and Twitter.

The Share Bar appears under every article

Hover over the orange Share button and you will find options to a multitude of other services, including Pinterest and StumbleUpon. You can also send the article to a friend by email.

Your Input

We are always looking for ways to improve our site. We have a small staff and it might take us a while to implement new things but every suggestion is considered. Thank you!